Instead of running in the state track meet this weekend, Christi Marraccini of Harrison will represent the United States in the Miss Italia nel Mondo beauty pageant near Venice.

Written by

Sam Borden

Journal News columnist

Christi Marraccini, a senior on the track and field team at Harrison High School, recently won the title of Miss Italia USA and she will compete in Italy for the title of Miss Italia nel Mondo

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HARRISON - The hardest thing about once-in-a-lifetime opportunities is when you have to choose between two of them. For Christi Marraccini, that's what the spring of her senior year at Harrison has been all about.

Marraccini, who is heading to Lehigh in the fall, finished off her track and field season with victories in the 100 and 400 hurdles at the League II meet, but she won't be running at the state championships this weekend. She won't be at Harrison's commencement ceremony on June 26, either.

Instead, Marraccini will be in Italy, representing the United States in the Miss Italia nel Mondo (Miss Italy in the World) beauty pageant, completing a journey that began earlier this year with a casual suggestion from her Italian teacher.

"I never did anything like this before," Marraccini said recently, sitting on the couch in her family's living room. "At first, I kind of took it as a joke."

That was how most of the people around her took it, too. It started innocuously enough, with her teacher, Maria Conte, saying to her one day: There's a New York pageant for Italian girls. Why don't you enter? So she did. She and her mother, Jayne, who is an elementary school teacher in Harrison, went to the Miss Italia USA New York pageant back in February. Marraccini had no idea what to expect and her mother was equally unsure.

"I actually brought papers with me to mark during the competition," Jayne said, laughing. "I had no clue what was going to happen."

What happened is, among other things, Marraccini won. Despite having never been a part of a pageant before, Marraccini deftly handled the interview portion - "the questions really aren't that hard," she said - and shined during the three runway segments. The contestants posed for the judges in a tank-top/skirt combination, a cocktail dress and - of course - a swimsuit.

"All the girls were like, 'I didn't know about this! I would have worked out more!' " Marraccini said. "I was just thinking, 'I'm so thankful for my track coaches.' "

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The prize for winning was a spot on a cruise in March, where Marraccini joined 46 other girls from the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico in another pageant to determine who would go to Italy. Accompanied by her dad this time, Marraccini found herself up against a number of more seasoned competitors. "A lot of them had managers and agents," Marraccini said.

Jayne said, "When my husband (former Harrison Mayor Philip Marraccini) called from the ship, he said, 'She doesn't have a chance.' The other girls were much more experienced."

Except Marraccini won again. The only hiccup she had in the multi-day pageant was when one of her questions during the interview portion was, "What is your sign?"

"I didn't get it at first because I didn't really see how that was the kind of question where you could give a long answer," Marraccini said. "So they asked it again and I was like, 'I'm a Pisces?' I didn't really know how to expand on that."

As it turned out, it didn't matter, and Marraccini came off the cruise with a second tiara and sash to go with her prizes from the New York pageant (she also won a scepter). It wasn't until a few days later that she realized what winning meant for her June schedule - with several weeks of publicity events required of the pageant contestants, Marraccini will miss the end to the track season as well as commencement. "There was never a serious thought of not going," she said. "It was just the thought of, 'Am I going to regret missing all this?' "

The most difficult part, Marraccini said, may have been the empty feeling she got when she thought about her track team. When she starred at the county meet and ran a school-record 15 seconds flat in the 100-meter hurdles, it gave her pause. "I felt like I was letting my coaches down," she said.

In truth, the support she has received from the school district has been overwhelming. Marraccini was awarded Harrison's Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year honor at a dinner earlier this week, and the Harrison principal, Dr. James Ruck, offered to have a special graduation ceremony for her when she returns.

So she went. Off to Jesolo, just outside Venice, where she will try to continue her undefeated streak as a pageant contestant. It is something she never imagined herself doing before and something she'll probably never do again.

"This is the end of it," she said. "I don't think I'll ever compete in another one."

If that turns out to be true, it would surely be fitting. During a spring that became something much different than she'd envisioned, Marraccini has come to realize an important truth: The best part about missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is the chance to experience a different one.